A Match Made in Lost
by Gandalf15
Summary: Riddle me this: who was Mal's father? What happened to him? It's all answered here, when Maleficent meets the intriguing Oogie Boogie.
1. Chapter 1

Maleficent's heels clicked as she strode into the tavern. Everyone in it subtly (or not-so-subtly) gave her a wide path, and didn't meet her eye. The air smelled of questionable drinks and various shades of filth dragged in from the streets by the patrons.

The Clawed Eye Tavern was dim and dingy, but the drinks were the best on the Isle of the Lost, used by many to forget that they were in fact on the Isle of the Lost.

A mangy, flea-ridden weasel and the warped cardboard body of a playing card soldier quickly edged out of Maleficent's way. She mounted a barstool that made an unsettling groan. In her past life she would never have set foot in a place like this, but there weren't many options on Lost.

She commanded "Edgar, bring me a Manticore Swig, immediately!" She drummed her fingers on the grimy counter as she waited impatiently for her drink.

A tiny beetle caught her eye as it scurried across the counter. Curling her lip in distaste, she raised her fist to smash it.

Seeing Maleficent's fist, the beetle made a quick U-turn and scuttled back the way it came, reaching what appeared to be a huge, lumpy, burlap… thing, and jumping into its folds of green fabric.

The burlap creature shifted and turned its body to reveal that its tapering form was topped by a crude face, consisting of eyes and mouth that were merely holes cut into the fabric. Even cruder arm-like appendages branched out from the body, one of which curled around a mug containing some suspicious alcoholic beverage.

Noticing Maleficent, the creature's stitched mouth grinned as it said "Well, well, _helloooo._ Come here often?" in a deep voice.

Maleficent turned up her nose and looked away. She didn't need any attentions from this dusty sack. However, as soon as she turned away, she was accosted from the other side.

"Hey, Mally," slurred the drunken figure. He was pale, wore dark clothes, and almost passed for human except for his burning eyes which identified his as a Toon. He was known as Judge Doom, though his Judge title had been stripped from him long ago.

Maleficent ignored him just as she had ignored the burlap thing. But he persisted, poking her and say "C'mon, Mally, don't be like that. Let's have a kiss, huh? Huh?"

Maleficent opened her mouth to tell him off, but the burlap thing spoke first. "Hey, pal, get lost! The lady don't wanna talk to you."

Doom snarled and said "Who are you telling to get lost, you big termite mound?"

The burlap thing got up from its stool and towered over Doom. "I'm telling YOU, little man!" And with that, he opened his stitched mouth and out flew a swarm of neon-blue wasps. The wasps surrounded Doom, who screamed and swatted at them before he was chased out of the tavern by the stinging throng.

Maleficent looked at the burlap man as he sat back down and burped out one last wasp. That had been… quite impressive. Since all magic was impossible on the Isle of the Lost, all the residents were left with were their natural skills. And she had never seen a natural skill quite like that.

Maleficent eyed the burlap man, and said "…impressive performance." Her tone was an odd mix of condescending and genuine.

The burlap man chuckled. "Heh heh. Just lettin' my bugs have some exercise. Name's Oogie Boogie. What's yours, doll?"

Maleficent bristled. "It is Maleficent, and that and only that is what you will call me."

Oogie smirked. "Whatever you say, my lady. Rowr! Now, hows about you let good ol' Oogie buy you a drink?"

Maleficent hesitated, but nodded her acceptance.

Oogie grinned and scooted his barstool a little closer to hers.

Maleficent and Oogie walked down the dock together. They made an odd pair, the thin, refined, pale lady and the giant, lumbering, shapeless burlap organism. Everything smelled like sea-salt and rotting carcass of Monstro the Whale, but they didn't mind.

As they walked, Maleficent said "I am quite sure that Aroura is far worse than any bones-man."

Oogie scowled. "No, Skellington is way worse than any dozing dame!"

Maleficent sighed. "I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree… despite Aroura being worse."

Oogie glared at her for a moment. Then he guffawed. "Oh, M, you're such a tricky little thing! That's what's great about ya." His laughter opened his mouth extremely wide, enough to expose all the little parasites scurrying around inside. Lovely.

After a good laugh, he sighed contentedly and wrapped a lumpy arm around Maleficent's shoulders. Maleficent accepted it, having come to like the feeling of multiple tiny things scuttling around under a layer of burlap caressing her.

Oogie leaned close and said "You know, M, this moonlight makes your face look a beee-yootiful shade of green."

Maleficent smiled, albeit almost imperceptibly. "Yours, too," she whispered.

The gang of thieves zig-zagged through several back-alleys, the leader keeping his prize fiercely clenched in his hand.

Their pursuer was close behind, her dark robes billowing in the wind as she chased.

Kicking aside a starving fox and cat, the gang headed down another alley, only to discover a dead end. The leader glanced around. There- in the wall! A hole, just large enough for someone to fit through. They couldn't all fit through in time before their pursuer arrived… but he could get away by himself, with the treasure of course. Let the others take whatever heat was coming. But he would have to be quick, before the others noticed-

His treacherous thoughts were interrupted. "You have nowhere left to run, boys."

The leader turned to see Maleficent, not appearing tired, standing at the mouth of the alley, cornering them.

The other thieves all looked to the leader. He stepped forward towards Maleficent. Acting just a _little_ braver than he felt, he sneered at Maleficent and said "You want something, lady?"

Maleficent's expression didn't change. "I want my necklace back. Now."

The leader brushed his greasy hair out of his face and smirked. "And, just suppose we don't feel like giving it back a whole lot? Your powers are shot on this island, everyone's is. What are you gonna do? Poke us with your horns?"

Maleficent smiled, a cruel and disquieting sight. She raised her staff. "Well, boys, what do you think I've been doing while I've been on the island? Learning how to knit?"

The leader had just enough time to say "Huh-?" before Maleficent struck him with the staff, felling him and knocking the necklace out of his hands.

The other thieves stood there for a moment, stunned. But they quickly remembered that it was all of them against one lady, and they couldn't let themselves be beaten. So, they all charged.

That proved to be a regrettable move. Maleficent was a furious storm, blowing all who came at her out of their senses. One lunged at her with a knife. She flung him backwards, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious. When he came to, he saw that his knife had landed blade-first just an inch from his face, which caused him to pass out again.

Using only her staff and limbs, Maleficent had incapacitated them all. They lay sprawled out around her in the alley, their faces bruised and bloody, their knives and clubs scattered uselessly around them. Maleficent sighed and adjusted her hat.

Only one member of the gang was still moving: the leader. He staggered up, wobbly and wheezing. With the necklace still in his hand, he scampered for the hole in the wall he had seen earlier.

As he scrambled into it, a deep voice permeated the alley. "Ooh, ooh, M, nice work. Can I have this one? Pretty please?" it boomed mockingly.

Maleficent smiled again and said "Alright." Immediately, something like a spider web flew up from inside the hole and netted the leader's face. It proceeded to drag the screaming, flailing leader down into the hole that he had ironically been about to dart down anyway. Maleficent watched. Eventually, the thief's screaming died down, and there was silence for a few moments. Then, from deep in the hole, came a thunderous belch, and the sound of monstrous burlap lips smacking contentedly.

Maleficent walked over and got her necklace from in front of the hole where the thief had dropped it. She polished it on her robe, and put it back on.

"Beauuuuutiful," Oogie Boogie's booming voice commented. Maleficent turned and left the alley. She and Oogie made a good team.


	2. Chapter 2

_POUND POUND POUND._

Maleficent opened one eye. She surveyed the dusty, dark room she had been forced to dwell in ever since she'd been exiled to Lost. The pounding had come from the door.

She rose from the bed, where she had been laying with her arms tightly folded (a habit she had caught from hanging around vampires). She walked across the room, her bare feet hitting the cold, creaking floor, and opened her door.

"Ah, Oogie. Just the bug-beast I needed to see. I have something to tell you."

Oogie's face made a movement that _would've_ been raising an eyebrow, if he'd had any eyebrows. "And I got something to tell you, M."

Maleficent waved her hand airily. "You can go first. Best for last."

Oogie shrugged and said "So, M, me and the bugs have found a way to get off this stinking island!"

Maleficent blinked. "What?"

"Well… only for me. Me and my bugs. We'll sneak out though the sewers one bug at a time, see, and the flying ones will carry the rest over the water to the mainland. It'll take some time, but we'll do it. Then, when my bugs are all across and I'm all together again, it'll be back to Halloweentown and revenge against Jack Skellington, baby!"

Oogie cackled, then sobered up. "Of course, that means I probably won't see you again, M… but, well, you never know, and anyways, it was fun while it lasted." He looked at her. "Now, what was it you had to tell me?"

Maleficent stared at Oogie. He frowned. "What? What is it, M?"

Her gleaming green eyes held his empty dark ones. "Oogie… I'm pregnant."

"…what?"

"I'm pregnant with your child, Oogie."

Oogie, for once in his unnatural life, was speechless.

"We're… _I'm…_ going to have a child."

They looked at each other, and if anything passed between them, it was known to them alone.

Oogie cleared his throat, causing a few grubs to fly out of his neck in the process. "Oh …do you know what it'll be?"

"I have a feeling it'll be a girl, but I don't know."

"…I meant whether it'll be a bug or humanoid."

"Oh. I don't know …probably a fairy, like me."

Oogie grunted. "I'll be gone."

Maleficent exhaled. "Unless you stay."

Oogie shrugged. "Yeah. I guess."

Maleficent raised her eyebrow. "Do you want to?"

Oogie said nothing for a while. Finally "…no."

"I didn't think so."

More silence.

"Are you asking me to?"

Maleficent bristled. "No. I'm not. I don't _need_ you, you know."

"Oh, you don't?"

"Absolutely not."

"…fine." Oogie turned and started to walk out. He turned his head back. "Maybe I'll see you, before I go."

Maleficent turned away herself. "Maybe you will."

Oogie brushed a spider off his head. "Well… see you around, M."

"Yes."

Oogie looked at her for another moment, turned back, and walked down the steps to the ground floor. Maleficent watched him go.

When he was gone, she closed her door. Then she lay back down, crossed her arms again, and tried not to feel.

The banana-yellow beetle scuttled across the mucky street, dashing between rocks and loose bits of pavement. It dodged the feet of the occasional passers-by. Its goal was the sewer entrance at the end of the street.

It had almost reached its destination when a foot came down quite near it, almost crushing it. It jumped away and squeaked.

Maleficent looked down at the beetle she had almost smashed. She bent down to get a closer look. There was no mistaking it. It was one of the many bugs that made up the body of the being that was Oogie Boogie.

Maleficent spoke to it. "So… I take it you're executing your plan?"

The beetle looked up at her, and the part of Oogie's mind that was inside it made it nod.  
Out of the corner of her eye, Maleficent saw a few other bugs hiding in a street corner, waiting for their turn to make a break for it.

Maleficent hesitated, then said "It will be a girl. I'm certain now."

Oogie Boogie's tiny voice came out of the beetle's mouth. "And she'll be the worst little abomination you could ask for."

Maleficent stood up. "Goodbye, Oogie."

"Goodbye, M," said the beetle.

And they both went their separate ways.

Maleficent, panting, looked down at the baby she had just delivered. Its skin had an ever-so-slight greenish tint to it.

The baby stared back at Maleficent. It had stopped crying, and was looking up at her with big, inquisitive eyes.

"What will you name it?" asked one of the Three Fates- possibly Clotho, though Maleficent could never keep their names straight. Since the strings of mortals' lives had been taken from them, they had taken up helping deliver babies. No small irony.

Maleficent hesitated at the question. When she had first found out she was pregnant, she had considered the name "Oogeficent." But she decided against that now. She was the child's parent, and she alone. The child had no father now, not really. And as such, Maleficent would not give any part of _his_ name to her child.

"Mal," she said, "I'll name her Mal."


End file.
